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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28298847">Make it to Milan</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/akmyers/pseuds/akmyers'>akmyers</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Horror, Rural, Short Story, Southern Gothic, Southern Horror, The South</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 01:07:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,826</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28298847</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/akmyers/pseuds/akmyers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"You kids ain't from around here, are ya?"</p><p>Three friends find out that driving dark, rural roads  isn't as quick or simple as they thought.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Make it to Milan</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You kids ain't from around here, are ya?"</p><p>"What gave us away?" Anne asked with a sly smile as behind her Peter and Ryan snickered at the woman's stereotypical response.</p><p>She caught a glimpse of her hands on the counter out of the corner of her eye. They were ghastly pale under the fluorescent lights.</p><p>The chuckle she was hoping for didn't come. The old woman behind the counter stayed stone-faced and stared Anne down. She was short and round with short grey hair and round-framed glasses which reflected the glare from the lights overhead, and she was clearly not amused.</p><p>Anne's smile faltered, and she tried again.</p><p>"So you said 30 more miles to Milan?" This time she pronounced it My-lan like the old woman had instead of Mih-lahn because, as she'd been told by the old woman, this wasn't Italy.</p><p>"Uh yeah, at least," the woman replied.</p><p>"So it's at least 30 more miles to Milan?"</p><p>"Uh yeah. It varies sometimes, but it's never less than 30."</p><p>"Which route can we take that's only 30 miles? We need to get there as fast as possible."</p><p>The woman squinted at her like Anne had just said the dumbest thing she'd ever heard and said, "Only one way to Milan."</p><p>Anne looked down at the map on the counter between them. "If there's only one way, how can the distance vary?"</p><p>"I knew we should have gotten directions off MapQuest," Ryan grumbled. "I'm grabbing snacks. You guys want anything?"</p><p>"Fuck yeah!" Peter said.</p><p>The old woman winced, and after the boys had wandered off a bit in search of food she said, "Foul-mouthed thing, ain't he?"</p><p>Anne nodded in agreement and kept her mouth shut. Judgemental old bitch, ain't ya? she thought.</p><p>"So we just get back on the highway and keep going. It might be 30 miles? It might be more?"</p><p>The old woman nodded. "Tha's what I told ya."</p><p>Anne nodded again and kept her face pleasant as she folded up the map and put it back in the rack by the register. "Thank you for your help. We really appreciate it."</p><p>She found the boys down one of the long aisles discussing which brand of beef jerky was better. She sidled up next to Peter and put an arm around his waist.</p><p>"So how much farther is it?" Ryan asked.</p><p>"I have no idea," Anne replied. "At least 30 miles probably? It wasn't even on the map, but the lady behind the counter said to get back on the highway and keep going."</p><p>"If it's not on the map is there even going to be a sign?" Peter said.</p><p>"There'll be a sign," Ryan scoffed. "This is rural, but people still need to know where towns are and shit."</p><p>Anne caught herself wincing and glancing at the old woman to see if she'd heard the swear. Wait a minute, why do I care what that grouchy, old harpy thinks? Then, as if she had something to prove, she said, "I don't fucking know, man. We don't know where the fuck we are, and it's fucking dark with no streetlights. What if we miss the sign? What if there is no sign? Maybe we should head back..."</p><p>"No way. We told my grandma we'd be there tonight."</p><p>"Maybe we should just-"</p><p>"No, we're going. We're like almost there anyway."</p><p>"What's your problem?" Peter asked her.</p><p>"I don't know," she replied, and she was being honest. She didn't know where it had come from exactly, but her conversation with the old woman gave her some serious heebie jeebies. "I'm sorry. Let's just get the snacks and go. I'm going to grab a soda. Do you guys want anything to drink?"</p><p>They walked back to the counter with arms full of sodas and chips and cookies and anything else that had struck their fancies. Ryan pulled out his wallet and Anne and Peter stepped back and let him take the lead on this one. Anne had bought lunch for everyone, and it was unlike Peter to pay for anything.</p><p>The old woman squinted and scowled as she typed codes into the old register and rang everything up. She gave them the total, overpriced for the convenience of being sustenance in the middle of nowhere but still cheaper than it would have been back home, and stared unwavering at them while Ryan dug cash out of his wallet. Her frown deepened when he set it on the counter in front of her instead of placing it in her hand.</p><p>"You know," she said, picking up the money and rifling through the bills, "I wouldn't try to make it to Milan tonight if I was yous."</p><p>Ryan chuckled and gave her what he probably thought was a charming grin. "And why not?"</p><p>The woman placed the bills in the register and set his change on the counter, ignoring his outreached hand. "It's dark. Strange things out here in the dark."</p><p>Here we go again. Anne's arms crawled with goosebumps.</p><p>"What kind of strange things?" Ryan asked with a hint of challenge in his voice.</p><p>"Well, all sorts of strange things, I reckon. But you kids ain't from around here. I don't reckon you'd know anything about any of it, would ya?" She responded to his challenge in kind.</p><p>"Nope," Ryan popped the p extra hard, "I don't reckon we would." He left his change on the counter and walked away.</p><p>Peter followed him, and Anne lagged behind for a moment. The old woman's gaze was hard and made her want to squirm away.</p><p>"Thank you for your help, ma'am," she managed to mutter before following the boys out into the darkness.</p><p>"What kind of bullshit was that?" Peter laughed.</p><p>"Just some crazy, old bitch bored working at a gas station deciding to fuck with some non-locals. That's all." Ryan waved it off. "It happens all the time here."</p><p>Anne wasn't as certain. The crawling sensation had worked its way up her arms and neck, and now her scalp tingled. Ghost tingles, her granny had called the sensation. Something unseen was seeing her. But she kept her mouth shut. She knew how Peter felt about silly superstitions. Instead she climbed in the backseat of Ryan's uncle Tom's old Volvo with the bags of snacks and drinks.</p><p>"It was creepy as fuck is what it was," Peter said as he settled into the passenger seat.</p><p>"Man, don't worry about it." Ryan started the car. "People love their fucking creepy ass folktales around here. Ooooo don't go out in the field after dark or the corn monsters will get you. Shit like that."</p><p>Peter laughed loud and raucous. "Nothing that creepy back home."</p><p>"Everything's creepier in the South."</p><p>Both boys laughed at that, and then Peter turned around to Anne.</p><p>"Hey baby, can I have my Mountain Dew."</p><p>She fished it out of the bag and handed it to him along with Ryan's Coke, and moments later they were back on the highway making their way towards Milan.</p><p>They drove through the darkness in silence. The speakers were busted. Ryan's uncle claimed he was going to get around the replacing them, but for now they were out of luck. Anne didn't mind it so much. It gave her space to think without the intrusion of the screaming lyrics or electronic beats Ryan favored.</p><p>The fields on either side of the road weren't visible through the thick, inky blackness of night, but Anne stared out the window regardless. She could almost see figures lurking among the corn stalks. Tall, hulking things hidden in the fields watching them drive by. She shivered and glanced at the glowing clock above the Volvo's cassette player. It had been almost an hour since they'd left the gas station.</p><p>As if he knew her thoughts, Peter said, "Shouldn't we be there by now?"</p><p>"I don't know, man," Ryan replied.</p><p>"It's really dark. What if we missed it?"</p><p>"We didn't miss it. There've been no turn offs at all. No towns. Just road... and fields."</p><p>"Haven't you been here before?"</p><p>"No. She just moved out here. Before she was living near Tom and Linda."</p><p>"This sucks, dude. Who would want to live out in the middle of Buttfuck, Nowhere?"</p><p>"Can you just shut the fuck up? I didn't ask you to come visit my family with me. You're the one who wanted to come, and you've been an asshole this whole trip. You could have stayed home."</p><p>A tense moment passed before Peter responded, "Whatever, dude. Is your grandma even going to be up when we get there?"</p><p>"Fuck off! She knows we're coming. She said she'd leave the light on and the door unlocked. What is your problem? Oh, you want to go to Knott's Berry Farm? You want to go to the fucking zoo? Then you shouldn't have come with me to visit my fucking family. You should have got a rental car and a fucking hotel and gone to do whatever the fuck you wanted to do instead of freeloading." When Peter didn't respond, Ryan continued, "My grandma is fucking sick. I didn't realize you wanted a free vacation. I thought you wanted to help me. Why are you even here right now?"</p><p>Anne shifted uncomfortably in the backseat. Why was she even here? Because Peter wanted a free vacation and insisted on dragging you along, her mind supplied for her, and you don't say no to Peter. No one did really. He was loud and boisterous, and he knew how to get what he wanted. She could tell by his posture how rankled he was by Ryan's comments.</p><p>Peter finally answered, "Christ, I'm fucking sorry. I'm just trying to help you relax a bit and have some fun."</p><p>"Yeah, whatever," Ryan muttered.</p><p>They stewed in tension as they drove on, and Anne turned her gaze back out the window into the night. She pictured the corn swaying with the air displaced by the car as they drove past. Tall stalks waved at them as they went along their way through the darkness as if wishing them well on their travels.</p><p>That's when she noticed it. A shape. An outline. A piece of the darkness that was darker than the rest. And it was moving along with the car. She blinked hard, and the shape disappeared. She sighed in relief only to startle when the shape reappeared a moment later.</p><p>"What the fuck?" she whispered.</p><p>Peter looked back over his seat at her. "What's wrong?"</p><p>"Something's following the car."</p><p>He and Ryan both laughed. "You're seeing things, babe," he told her.</p><p>"No, really. Just watch out the side window."</p><p>She could practically hear him roll his eyes as he turned to look out the window. "Yeah, sure." He paused for a moment. "I don't see anything. How can you see anything anyway? It's fucking dark."</p><p>"It's like a piece of the dark that's blacker than the rest. It's like a lump or something. It's moving alongside the car, like it's running without running. It doesn't really look like it's moving, but I can tell it is."</p><p>Ryan snorted, and Peter said, "Yeah, okay..." but he continued to stare out the window.</p><p>Anne tracked the shape as it moved alongside them. It didn't always keep pace exactly. Sometimes it fell a bit behind for a moment, and at other moments it seemed to lurch ahead of them, but it was there.</p><p>Finally Peter said, "Yeah, you're losing your mind, baby. I don't see- holy fuck! There's something following the car!"</p><p>"What the fuck?! Are you two fucking with me? This isn't funny," Ryan said.</p><p>"No, dude. You have to fucking trust me. There's something running beside the car."</p><p>"I'm doing 65. There's nothing running beside the car. It's impossible."</p><p>"How much farther do you think it is to your grandma's?" Anne asked.</p><p>"I don't know! I already told you I don't know! If this is a joke, I'm going to be fucking pissed."</p><p>"I wish I was joking," Peter said. "This is weird as fuck. When did you notice it?"</p><p>"I don't know," Anne replied. "A few minutes ago. I thought I was seeing things at first."</p><p>"Man, what the fuck?!" Ryan exclaimed. He glanced out Peter's window before returning his eyes to the road. "I don't see shit."</p><p>"You have to, like, look for a while," Anne told him, "otherwise it just blends in with the dark. Once your eyes get acclimated to the darkness, it starts to stand out, and you can see it." She continued tracking the shape as it moved beside them. She felt like she couldn't let it out of her sight.</p><p>"Dude, this is fucked," Peter said. "What do we do?"</p><p>"Uh, keep driving? I don't fucking know! Ugh! We should have got gas at the creepy gas station."</p><p>"Why didn't you?"</p><p>"Because Anne said it was only like 30 miles, and we still had like a quarter of a tank!"</p><p>"I said I didn't know how far for sure," Anne corrected him without taking her eyes off the lumbering shape outside her window. "You heard the lady the same as me."</p><p>"How much gas do we have?" Peter asked.</p><p>"It's on E, dude."</p><p>"Well, fuck..."</p><p>"Look, I'm sure it's right up the road. Or there's another gas station coming up. There has to be, right?"</p><p>"I don't think we should stop..." Anne said.</p><p>"Fuck. You two have got me all freaked out and shit. There's probably nothing out there. It's just the dark fucking with your eyes."</p><p>"I don't know, dude... It looks pretty-"</p><p>Peter was cut off by the car slamming into something in the darkness, and Ryan hit the brakes hard. Anne flew forward against her seatbelt, thankful that the Volvo's shoulder strap was one of the ones that didn't give when pulled on suddenly. She'd have bruises, but at least they wouldn't be on her face from slamming into the back of the passenger seat.</p><p>"What the fuck, dude?" Peter was rubbing his nose. He hadn't been wearing his seatbelt. "What did you hit?"</p><p>Ryan stared out the windshield. "I don't know. A deer maybe."</p><p>They were all looking out the windshield when it happened. A dark figure rose up into the headlights. It was the size of a tall man, but it was no man. It had strange angles to it and appeared bent and twisted. They sat in silence as the figure stepped out of the headlights and moved down the driver's side to the back of the car. They could follow its outline in the dark as it passed their windows, and Anne shuddered.</p><p>Ryan hit the gas suddenly, and Anne slammed back into her seat.</p><p>"We have to get the fuck out of here!" Ryan said.</p><p>Peter sat silent for once, and Anne turned to look out the rear window. She could make out the figure, darker than the darkness around it, with two pinpoints of red light reflecting their taillights back at them.</p><p>"What the fuck was that, you guys? Was that what was following us?" Ryan babbled, bringing Anne's attention back to what laid before them.</p><p>Peter sat and stared out the windshield at the blackness racing towards them. Anne noticed how insufficient the headlights seemed against all that dark.</p><p>"What the fuck, Anne?!"</p><p>"I don't know. It didn't look the same."</p><p>"What the fuck did the other thing look like?"</p><p>"More like a... mound. It was rounder. I think it was taller."</p><p>"Shit. Shit. Shit."</p><p>"Maybe we should have gone back to your aunt and uncle's..."</p><p>"Yeah, you think? God damn it. We just have to make it to Milan. Any minute now..."</p><p>"Are you okay, Peter?" She put a hand on his shoulder as she asked. She got no response.</p><p>Fear filled the little car. Anne took shallow breaths, certain that if she inhaled too hard she'd breathe it in. She kept a hand on Peter's shoulder, rubbed at the hem of her shorts with the other, and kept her eyes forward despite the siren-like call she felt from the darkness outside her window. She felt compelled to look, but she no longer desired to imagine what waited out in the fields.</p><p>They drove on to Ryan's mutterings of "Any minute now..." for close to half an hour before they ran out of gas. The car sputtered for a moment before it quit running.</p><p>"Oh fuck!" Ryan shouted as they coasted to a stop. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," he chanted as he cranked the key in the ignition.</p><p>Nothing happened.</p><p>"What now?" Anne asked. "Is there a gas can in the trunk?"</p><p>Ryan threw his hands up and then collapsed against the steering wheel, his head buried in his arms.</p><p>Anne watched out the windows as the darkness surrounding the car grew darker and inched closer and closer. "I don't think we're going to make it to Milan tonight."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading! You can also find me on wattpad (https://www.wattpad.com/user/akmyers) or on my website (www.akmyers.net).</p></blockquote></div></div>
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